‘’There is an excitement for Rutgers University moving into the Big Ten that rivals any excitement the football program has ever had. It's a great final destination for our program, and something we really felt we were a perfect fit for.''-- Rutgers football coach Kyle Flood on excitement-level in moving to Big Ten from the American Athletic Conference.

Sizing up the competition: Seven Big Ten programs earned bowl bids last fall, marking the 15th straight season that six or more teams took part in postseason play and the eighth time since 2002 that seven or more teams qualified. Of Rutgers’ six East Division rivals – which include Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State – only Indiana didn’t have a winning record last fall while Rose Bowl-champion Michigan State and Ohio State earned BCS berths. Five Big Ten schools received votes in final 2013 polls, including at least two top-10 teams for the fifth time in the last six seasons. No. 4 Ohio State, No. 6 Michigan State, No. 14 Wisconsin and No. 16 Nebraska were ranked in the USA Today’s early Top 25 forecast this month, and Rutgers faces all four this fall.

The numbers matter: Rutgers football has been a self-sustaining program once in the past decade – in 2012, when its operations budget totaled $21.3 million. While Rutgers’ $87.5 million combined football budget from 2008-11 was fueled by 14.6 percent in institutional subsidies, only $419,918 was needed to make up for a gap in the Scarlet Knights’ $19.7 million football budget in 2013. While $31.7 million in ticket sales helped Penn State produce $52.8 million in revenue last year, Rutgers’ ticket sales ($6.9 million) dipped 12.2 percent from 2012 and 35 percent from its record-high of $10.6 million in 2010. Rutgers averaged 46,549 fans for its seven home games last season, a 5 percent decrease from the 49,188 average from 2012. Big Ten schools in 2013 saw 6 million fans attend games, breaking the conference record in averaging 70,483 fans for all games. Of the 14 Big Ten teams, only Maryland (51,802) and Northwestern (49,256) have smaller seating capacities than Rutgers(52,454).